Saturday, 5 May 2012

Modo Cube Drafting

I first wrote this just
after the first time cube came to modo but never got round to
finishing it and posting it. We are now in the middle of cube modos
second outing and I have managed to get a lot more drafts in this
time round. I did 4 last time and am now on my 8th this
time round. Things are going pretty well although I have had almost
exclusively mono beatdown decks and mostly red ones at that. Mostly I
have been doing the 8-4 although impatience has led me to regret
doing a few 4322 and swiss drafts (as the ques are less full) in
which the winnings are lower and my decks end up a lot more
inconsistent. When drafting with more skilled players everyone tends
to end up with better, more consistent decks as people react to
signals better and end up hate drafting far less. Unsurprisingly my
control decks have performed the worst while my mono coloured decks
have done the best.

12 decks

1 White weenie 3-0

1 mono black agro 3-0

1 WB weenie geddon 2-1

1 Boros Deck Wins 3-0

1 UW control 1-1 (4322)

1 The Rock 1-2 (swiss)

1 Big Red 3-0

1 Ponza 2-1

4 RDW 0-1, 3-0, 2-1,
1-1

(returning to what I started 3 weeks ago mostly just to fill the void left by the absence of online cube drafting...)

So the best format in
magic comes to best medium for fair and diverse play – Magic online
cube draft! I only managed to do four drafts this weekend due to not
realising it was only here for the weekend. While I still prefer my
cube list I am greatly anticipating the return of the format, ideally
for good. My understanding is that Wizards make less money from a
cube draft online than normal drafts where the packs must also be
supplied and as such the opportunity cost of allowing people the
option of cube will harm their revenue as people who would otherwise
be drafting normally will cube instead. I don't normally play Modo
and neither do many of my friends however we were all online this
weekend to try it out. Regardless of the profitability I
also think it is a little harsh to tease players like this, guess its
back to playing real life people for no tix for me. Right, whine over
and onto discussing the cube Wizards used.

It
is a 720 card de-powered cube with even colour splitting which seems
very sensible for use solely in 8 man drafts. It has a higher average
power level than my cube, a higher mana curve and less narrow
“synergy” cards. Being 720 cards you will only ever see half of
the card pool in a draft which means putting too many narrow cards in
will lead to a lot of dead picks which is not ideal when you only
have 45 cards from which to build your deck. The main result of these
differences is that the games feel much more like limited games than
constructed games which is neither a good nor bad thing but simply
wise to observe. The two basic archetypes are; generic limited
control decks that stall, stay alive and aim to cast massive powerful
bomb cards and agro cheap things to try and kill people before they
make anything too broken. You can do combo decks or mimic constructed
archetypes but you have to be lucky to get the things you need and
shouldn't try to force them if you want to stand a good chance of
winning the event.

Their
choices of cards that were too powerful to include interested me
greatly. Their banned list as it were is very similar to mine only
allowing Umezawa's Jitte, Karakas and Strip mine to be used from it
but also adding Mind Twist, Timetwister, Mana Crypt, Mana Vault,
Mishra's Workshop and Mana Drain to the list. The last two I can
entirely appreciate and even Mana Crypt can be rather unfair however
the others seems a little overly cautious. I got a last pick Mind
Shatter, add a mana to the cost of the other banned cards and they
are all still very high picks. Mind Twist can be tedious but only as
much as Hymn to Tourach can be, with most of the other fast mana gone
Mind Twist is even less frightening. I imagine Jitte will ruin lots
the games it turns up in but the full set of swords were doing a good
job of that anyway so its not too big of a deal. Karakas has had an
errata which makes it less tedious only being able to bounce
creatures. The Strip Mine is the most dangerous card that has been
left in the format, particularly as Crucible of the Worlds is also at
large but also with the high curve and low number of duals.

There
are a few cards that seem like massive omissions. Green does not have
Overrun which is a huge card for the colour and gives it real reach.
Blue is missing Grand Architect which makes the aggressive blue
strategies far less appealing. Red has not been given Burst
Lightening or Seal of Fire which may be intentional so as to keep red
deck wins style decks in check as they are one of the obvious best
aggressive archetypes. Bonesplitter is one of the best equipment
cards and would be especially brutal in this slower format. Missing
the Talismans is also a shame as they are much more reliable colour
fixing and ramp than the various alternatives used like Fellwar
Stone. Smallpox and Kor Skyfisher are two cards I highly rate that
are also missing. No cards are essential in a cube however and these
omissions free up space for other interesting cards.

There
are also a good number of cards I have tried and found under-powered
such as Basalt Monolith or just used in way to few decks (usually
gold cards). In a colour balanced 720 card cube this is to be
expected and does give rise to more unusual situations. There are
also a decent number of cards I haven't thought to try or simply
haven't got round to trying which I look forward to testing with an
open mind. Frenzied Goblin stands out as a card I had never
entertained as viable for the cube but that could actually be quite
handy in certain decks. I have not played with shadow monsters in the
cube for a long time. Back in the day non agro decks didn't play much
in the way of monsters and so evasion wasn't such a big deal. As
creatures have got better and planeswalkers are common evasion has
become more valuable in the cube. I have had shadow guys in half of
my cube decks on modo (after 4 drafts, sadly red is lacking in shadow
cards) so far (the better performing decks) and have been very
impressed with them and expect some to see a long awaited return to
my cube.

There
is far less mana fixing in the modo cube than I am used to and far
less land in general. This further increases the limited feel of the
format and makes fixing a high pick. Aggressive decks cannot really
go for more than two colours unless they are very fortunate with
lands and should aim to splash rather than even split where possible.
Many of the cheap two and three drop monsters have double mana costs
which needs to be carefully monitored while making picks. Consistency
in aggressive decks is of great importance and with this cube as it
is the best option is to go mono coloured where possible and if not
should prioritise on colour duals over most other things. The slower
decks are able to get away with more janky splashes and colours in
general but it is still an issue none the less. Looking at my 12
drafts I have gone mono two thirds of the time, two of which were
very light splashes in the 2nd colour and all of which had
pretty reasonable fixing and still they are the under-performing
decks.

Planeswalkers
are plentiful in this cube and are usually very high picks. There is
an abundance of removal, particularly mass removal for most
permanents in this cube however planeswalkers are hard to deal with
and make for the most reliable threats. Equipment is also proving
better in this cube than in mine. The slower format helps as does
high quantity of mass creature removal. Powerful equipment allow you
to extend better without losing to mass removal as fewer permanents
are hit and also allows you to recover from mass removal more easily
as one equipped monster can be a serious threat. In a generic good
stuff deck an ideal situation is to have the majority of your
creatures as cheaper utility guys that ideally offer some value when
played or killed with a couple of decent bits of equipment and as
many on colour planeswalkers as you can pick up.

Removal
of all forms is highly valuable in modo cube. Mass removal is great
but only applicable in certain kinds of deck and so targetted removal
of all forms is important to pick up, often more so than the powerful
threats. Obviously creatures are the main thing you want to be able
to kill but having cards that can take out other permanent types are
very useful even if you end up leaving them in the sideboard. I
probably wouldn't maindeck a pure artifact kill spell such as Smash
to Smithereens until I saw something I really wanted to be able to
kill but I would happily maindeck a Naturalize as you have many more
possible targets. Pillage is another card in this vein I find I
always play when I have it.

Here
are just a few cards that jump out at me as really happy first picks
you could have in this format:

Umezawa's
Jitte

Skullclamp

Swords
of This and That

Elspeth,
Knight Errant

Jace,
the Mind Sculptor

Mox
Diamond

Chrome
Mox ( I keep seeing these going very late

Balance

Lightening
Bolt

Goblin
Guide

Sulphuric
Vortex

Strip
Mine

Crucible
of Worlds

Bird
of Paradise

Swords
to Plowshares

Path
to Exile

Vedalken
Shackles

My
Big Red List:

23
Spells

Spikeshot
Elder

Mogg
War Marshal

Coldsteel
Heart

Mind
Stone

Everflowing
Chalice

Pyroclasm

Pristine
Talisman

Paladium
Myr

Worn
Powerstone

Pillage

Wheel
of Fortune

Chandra's
Phoenix

Solemn
Simulacrum

Chandra,
the Firebrand

Goblin
Ruinblaster

Chandra
Nalaar

Inferno
Titan

Myr
Battlesphere

Sundering
Titan

Wildfire

Burning
of Xinye

Pyrokenisis

Devil's
Play

17
Lands

City
of Traitors

16
Mountains

SB

Platinum
Angel

Phyrexian
Processor

Mind
Slaver

Smoke
Stack

Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Time Spiral ( I show these two blue cards to make a point of consistency > power)

To
conclude this little into and exploration of modo cube I would say
that the best way to win is having a mono coloured beatdown deck with
a curve that is tailing off around the four slot. When this is not an
option or not desirable then be very mindful of your priorities. Big
bomb cards are abundant in this cube particularly compared to normal
booster drafts where as removal and fixing are not so plentiful. When
making a normal looking non-mono good stuff deck I would prioritise
mana fixing followed by removal, then followed by useful low curve
cards taking big power bomb cards only when there is no other pick or
you feel properly saturated on the other cards. Winning however is
not what cube is about so instead take no notice of what I have said
and pick the most fun card every time!